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Rove defended most of his comments, though, saying that Clinton went through a “serious health episode” and that she will be forced to deal with many questions about her health and age if she chooses to run for president in 2016.

“I never used that phrase, I never used that phrase. But look, she had a serious health episode. And I don’t know about you, but if you go through a serious health episode, it causes you to look at life a little bit differently. This was a serious deal,” he said.

America’s Newsroom host Bill Hemmer challenged Rove on his timeline, saying his research showed that Clinton was in the hospital only for three days. Rove conceded the point about her hospital stay but largely stuck by his monthlong timeline. “She goes in on a Sunday, she comes out on a Wednesday. But this is a 30-day period where she’s fighting something.”

The Republican strategist said his main point was that her health invariably will come up on the campaign trail if she chooses to run for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

“Get ready. The New York Times is going to be asking a lot of tough questions about every candidate’s health. They always do. And it’s going to be an issue. It was an issue when George W. Bush ran. It was an issue when John McCain ran.”

The New York Post’s Page Six section on Monday reported that Rove made comments about Clinton’s health and suggested she might have suffered brain damage. In 2012, the former secretary of state had a blood clot that forced her to postpone her congressional testimony on the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

“Thirty days in the hospital?” Rove reportedly said. “And when she reappears, she’s wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what’s up with that.”

The Clinton camp later criticized Rove for his comments. “Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. “She is 100 percent. Period.”

When asked to respond to the spokesman’s comments, Rove said with a smile that he thought their better response came earlier, when a Clinton spokesman said: “Please assure Dr. Rove she’s 100 percent.”

He also said that his comments have always been a lightning rod for Democrats.

“I am the bête noire for the Democrats. I am the gift that keeps on giving to them,” he said. Rove served as a top adviser and strategist for former President George W. Bush’s administration and reelection campaign in 2004.

Rove, in an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday morning, said of Clinton: “Of course, she doesn’t have brain damage.”

But Rove still accused Clinton’s team of keeping quiet on the issue, saying “she’s hidden a lot of this.” Rove also said that Clinton’s team was “not particularly forthcoming” about the health issue and that it took them “24 hours” to clarify her condition at the time.

Rove also said this would be a personal issue for Clinton: “When you go through a health incident like this, any presidential candidate has to ask themselves, ‘Am I willing to do this for eight years of my life?’”